WHO published report on antibacterial agents in clinical development

Thursday, September 21, 2017

As part of implementation of the Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, WHO drew up a list of priority antibiotic-resistant pathogens (priority pathogens list; PPL) to guide research into and the discovery and development of new antibiotics.

As a further step, WHO analysed the pipeline of antibacterial products (antibiotics and biologicals) that were in phase I-III of clinical development (as of May 2017) and which had not, at that date, received market authorization for human use anywhere in the world. The analysis matched the products in development against the WHO priority pathogens list (PPL), Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Clostridium difficile.

Candidate products are reported by type, pathogen category, phase of clinical development, and expected activity against priority pathogens. There is also an assessment of their innovativeness and whether a new chemical entity is involved. The route of administration, antibiotic class and developers are also reported. The review shows that the current clinical pipeline is still insufficient to mitigate the threat of antimicrobial resistance.